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The Project Control Framework
This framework sets out how we, together with the Department for Transport, manage and deliver major road improvement projects.
A303 Stonehenge (incorporating the Winterbourne Stoke Bypass) Preferred Route Announcement June 1999
A303 Stonehenge (incorporating the Winterbourne Stoke Bypass) Preferred Route Announcement June 1999
Why a road improvement is proposed
The A303 Trunk Road is an important business and holiday route between the M3 and the West Country. The 9km (5.5 mile) section between Amesbury and Berwick Down, west of Winterbourne Stoke, is the first section of single carriageway encountered by westbound traffic.
The road passes through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site close to the monument itself. The A344 joins the A303 east of the monument and passes closer to the Stones. The proximity of these two roads has a major detrimental effect on the setting of Stonehenge and other archaeological features within the World Heritage Site. Around Stonehenge there is noise and visual intrusion from traffic and also air pollution.
The western section of this single carriageway passes through the village of Winterbourne Stoke on substandard horizontal and vertical alignments. This introduces traffic noise and air pollution to the village and its Conservation Area. The road also causes severance to the village.
The existing road already carries traffic flows in excess of its theoretical capacity. Consequently there is serious queuing on the approaches to the single carriageway sections and Countess Roundabout, particularly on Friday and Sunday evenings and Saturdays in summer.
This section of road has an accident rate above the national average for this type of road, with significant numbers of accidents occurring at the junctions with the A344 and A360 and through Winterbourne Stoke.
